The Biden administration is demanding the heads of federal departments and agencies begin personally tracking efforts to get government workers to return to the office, according to a Bloomberg report.
“Some of your agencies are not where they need to be and have work ahead to meet your goals,” White House chief of staff Jeff Zients said in a memo obtained by Bloomberg.
During the first quarter of 2023, no federal agency’s headquarters had an average utilization rate above 50%, according to data released by Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa). At three agencies — the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Small Business Administration and the Social Security Administration — office utilization early last year was below 10%.
That prompted the White House in August to start pressuring federal managers to get their workers back to the office. Some departments — including large employers such as the State Department, Pentagon and Department of Veterans Affairs — reported more than 50% of staff was working in person by last fall.
Each federal agency will be expected to produce a document outlining their return-to-office progress, concrete steps they are implementing to encourage workers to return and new implementation steps they plan to take.
Macy’s to Cut More Than 2,300 Jobs
CNBC reports Macy’s will cut about 3.5% of its workforce and close five of its namesake mall locations as the legacy department store moves to trim costs and turn around slowing sales,
The move will affect approximately 2,350 positions across its corporate office and stores, company spokesman Chris Grams said.
The company notified employees about the layoffs on Jan. 18 and the last day for affected employees will be Jan. 26.
Stores that will be shuttered are located in Arlington, Virginia; San Leandro, California; Lihue, Hawaii; Simi Valley, California and Tallahassee, Florida. The stores will close in early 2024, Grams added.
Macy’s has 723 locations across the country, as of Oct. 28, the end of the most recently reported quarter.
Microsoft Lays Off 1,900 Jobs in Gaming
Microsoft Corp. will lay off 1,900 people across its video-game divisions including at Activision Blizzard, which it purchased for $69 billion in an acquisition that closed late last year.
In an email to staff reviewed by Bloomberg, Microsoft gaming chief Phil Spencer wrote that the cuts represented about 8% of Microsoft’s 22,000 gaming workers.
“Together, we’ve set priorities, identified areas of overlap, and ensured that we’re all aligned on the best opportunities for growth,” Spencer wrote.
Blizzard Entertainment is also making big changes as part of the cuts, canceling a survival game codenamed Odyssey and parting ways with President Mike Ybarra and chief design officer Allen Adham, the company’s co-founder.
More than 60 other tech companies, including Amazon.com Inc. and Google parent Alphabet Inc., have let go almost 11,000 employees so far this year, according to Layoffs.fyi, which tracks tech industry job cuts.
Condé Nast Staffers Stage One-Day Walkout to Protest Layoffs
More than 400 staffers at Condé Nast, the parent company of prestigious publications including Vanity Fair, Vogue and GQ, walked off the job Jan. 23 in a historic 24-hour work stoppage over the company’s plan to lay off staff.
CNN reported the daylong walkout, intentionally timed on the day of the Academy Awards nominations, is in protest of what the NewsGuild of New York described as “unlawful handling of layoff negotiations and bad-faith bargaining.”
Hundreds of staffers joined a picket line outside the company’s New York City headquarters.
The protest comes after Condé Nast announced on Nov. 1 it was planning to cut 5% of its workforce. The company then revised the plan, announcing it would lay off 94 unionized members, or some 20% of the Condé Nast union. The union’s bargaining team countered management’s proposal, offering a slimmer number of layoffs, more severance and a moratorium on cuts. The publisher’s last offer, issued earlier in January, kept the total number of cuts at 94 and almost halved the proposed severance, the union said.
The NewsGuild of New York has filed an unfair labor practice charge on behalf of Condé Nast union, citing regressive bargaining.
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